The ongoing adventures of a boy who never grew out of making and playing with plastic model kits (and even some metal ones too). Also a wargamer in search of the perfect set of wargaming rules for WWII Land and 20th Century Naval campaigns.

Tuesday, 31 March 2015

Having played one game of Space Crusade with fill-in miniatures I wanted to do full justice to the baddies, in particular the Genestealers. First of all they are primed Grey and given a thick purple wash by mixing Vallejo Red and Blue washes (2:1) together to give them an "evil look" (see below):

The terrible threesome are given a Vallejo Plague brown shade over the bone carapace armour (see below):

This in turn was layered up with a Vallejo Bone White and Vallejo Off White highlight. The skin area was given a shade/base of Vallejo Impetial Blue and layered upbu adding successive amounts of Vallejo Stone Grey to create a patchy sickly skin (see below):

One is bad enough but three? (see below):

Never got to use them last game ... watch out Space Marines "if you go down into the Space Hulk today you are in for a big surprise!"

Note: I tried to be true to the original box cover art with the 'white bone and blue skin' colour scheme

Monday, 23 March 2015

Slipping away from my Sci-Fi interlude I picked up the infamous Fairey Battle from its hibernation cave near the Painting Tray. Just a little touch up on the "yellow bombs" and paint the remaining areas of the underside matte black (see below):

I suppose it is the same view the German flak gunners along the Meuse saw when the six Battles of the 'Dirty Dozen' (No. 12 Squadton AASF) attacked those vital Meuse bridges.

Next step is to see how the interesting NEW "satin green paint" (Airfix 163) comes out on the model.

Sunday, 22 March 2015

Chunkier than their newer Games Workshop cousins, nevertheless the original Eldar Expansion Pack provides a nice fourth player for Space Crusade Game. Decked out in their Eldar Blue/Yellow colour scheme the seven surviving figures form a protective perimeter (see below):

I have to say I am enjoying this somewhat unplanned foray into a bit of Science Fiction with its rather retro feel to it!

Wednesday, 18 March 2015

As well as a universe full of 'good guy' Space Marines, the fourth player option in Space Crusade introduces The Eldar race, an exotic class of "Space Elf" (or should that be 'Gelf' see below, WIP on my first one):

These come from the Space Crusade expansion pack. More nimble than their heavy footed Space Marine counterparts and their leaders have 'psychic spell like powers' to complement their "advanced tech". I have chosen the classic vintage Blue/Yellow paint scheme (see below):

Like all the "good guys" they hate Chaos but can be quite cold and ruthless to Space Marines as well if/when their spheres of interest cross.

Monday, 16 March 2015

Three small tactical squads of Space Marines from the Ultra Marines, Blood Angels and Imperial Fists Chapters take on a Chaos Renegade (me) sitting in a Space Hulk recently emerged from the "warp" and brimming with deviant chaos creatures! Classic stuff, there is beer and pretzels too, what more could a man want for on a Friday night?

The "Good Guys" deploy into the Space Hulk and are immediately surrounded by a disconcerting sea of blips on their movement scanners. An early 'Random Alien' event turns out to be very useful to The Blood Angels player, revealing all my blips for miniatures on his game board. My cunning Chaos Space Marine "trap in waiting" was blown open so I decided in the best fashion of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to "rush 'em"! [Note: Space Crusade has no concept of an 'over-watch' so you can rush in and hopefully fire off a devastating volley] (see below):

Note: Tau substitute in for Chaos Space Marines, Tyranids for Orcs (who would never survive in space IMHO) and scavenger Necron robots for Getchins.

The Blood Angel's perimeter defense (see above) is smothered in a hail of (what I hoped to be devastating) fire, but in true billboard Space Marine recruitment-poster fashion I scored "no" telling hits. Damn those dice! The inevitable returning fire from The Blood Angels (tooled up with three heavy weapons against my advice) was devastating (no more Chaos Space Marines). I gained a new found sense of respect for Space Marines "heavy weaponry". I was also now without my centerpiece defensive asset. Not a good start, luckily the "rookie" Space Marines didn't realize how compromised (and how totally out of ideas) I was. The Imperial Fists and Ultra Marines meanwhile cleaned up in their respective sectors. I had put a screen of dummies, Gretchins and Orcs out trying to wear the Space Marines down as they cautiously advanced. My sniping screen managed to pick off one 'unlucky' Ultra Marine taken out by a Gretchin, or rather armed 'cleaning droid' (see below):

As the Imperial Fists and Ultra Marines were dragging their heels I saw another fleeting opportunity to isolate and take out some Blood Angels head-to-head, so I unleashed my Android and Dreadnought [aka a Tyranid Warrior figure] in a "kitchen sink" attack with some soak off Orcs and Gretchin tagging along for the ride (see below):

I had quality and numbers. "May he who rolls the better dice win" and I just rolled plain bad. Everything bar the Dreadnought is lost to those accursed Blood Angels (to whom I was deepening my healthy respect of, have I mentioned the "heavy weapons" yet . As in, "Do you know where can I get some?").

Time to run away and stage an Alamo and go down fighting. The Blood Angels take chunks out of the Dreadnought but it's the Imperial Fists (in Yellow) who wade in to steal the show and take out the "primary objective" (claiming 30 points). It is not going the way of Chaos (see below):

Strange things can happen in a game of Space Crusade as a random Alien Event (I was hoping for a Genestealer attack but one never materialized) caused the Ultra Marines to inadvertently trigger a Booby-trap (resulting in the most deadly Chaos attack of the game) taking out two Space Marine troopers and wounding their Space Marine Commander (see below, the indignity of it all, tee-hee, never give in is the Chaos motto):

Despite this small victory there is nothing to stop the last brave Chaos Orc being hunted down like the dog it is, falling in the end to an Imperial Fist heavy weapon despite the Ultra Marines playing "catch the pigeon" (see below, we nick named the last Orc/lizard as "Charlie" with respect to the infamous pigeon song):

With that there was the undignified scramble back to the respective docking ports as the victorious Space Marines "bugged out". A damn fine game, despite the kicking "Chaos" received. A good use of miniatures I had been eclectically hoarding for the past ten years or so and time spent in very pleasant company to boot. The relative final score rakings were :

The Blood Angels [taking no casualties], promoted one rank and two honour badges

The Imperial Fists [taking no casualties], two honour badges

The Chaos Renegade (me) missing out by the difference of just one more Space Marine from an acceptable performance, I am turned into Chaos Spawn as punishment [new Chaos Renegade Character required]

Sunday, 15 March 2015

Unlike "The Imperial Fists" and "The Blood Angels" which were fresh paints, I already possessed some albeit ancient Ultra Marines from a long since dried up starter paint pack from Games Workshop (dating back to the late 1980's methinks). However for 'smooth play' I needed three marines (including one commander figure) that could have interchangeable parts (as in weapons). Hence the small but necessary addition to my collection (see below):

The three bluer figures seen above being the newbies! This little painting task done and I have reached the minimum threshold of figures needed for "game play"! I wonder which one is called "Spot the Space Marine" ;)

Saturday, 7 March 2015

Space Crusade was a late 1980's, early 1990's Party Game from Games Workshop filled with a variety of Warhammer 40K goodies (Space Marines) and baddies (a little bit of everything but Alien [Genestealers] and RoboCop [Dreadnought] influences can be clearly seen). It also gives me the excuse to justify my ad-hoc smattering of GW and non-GW Sci-Fi figures. Whereas if you "play the 40K game proper" you need shed loads of kit. Space Crusade and it's cousin Space Hulk lets you play a beer and pretzel game with friends in an evening. Perfect for "my time of life" and a planned March get together with some old buddies.

I need to paint two batches of five Space Marines in Blood Angels (Red) and Imperial Fists (Yellow) for the game (to take it to that extra level, rather than playing with bare plastic). As luck would have it I am already covered with a small gang of Ultra Marines (Blue). The baddies are covered by "subbing in from other sources" (for example instead of Chaos Space Marines I will use Tau, instead of Space Orks [creatures IMHO are unbelievable in Sci-Fi setting, as I could not believe they could make it into space and stay alive] I will use Tyranids). As long as they are painted suitably Sci-Fi I am happy.

Note: This
includes "Getting a Kindle" (at some point), playing On-Line Games
(which probably means getting a new computer) ... this could mean goodbye to
some books, or at least not so many new ones! Difficulty [Medium, still medium]